Dan Severson

A quest on the web. A webquest. I have not heard of such a thing until this class. I have used the web when showing my students how to look up bull proofs at certain bull studs but the idea of creating a lesson plan integrating the web seems tricky to me. I would like to use this media into my curriculum and hook my students at the same time they are learning the content I would normally be standing up there just talking away. While reading about webquests and all that goes into to them I am starting to think that my final project will be tough. I like the idea of a cow web page but will they learn the content. I think it has to do with the recipe - how it is set up. There is not a lot, a few, on reading dairy pedicgrees on the internet or in books. I have some stuff but most of it is just from being around it and picking it up and asking questions.

Farmers have changed the way they farmed in the past twenty years but many instructors have not changed the way they have taught in the past twenty years. I do not want to be one of those teachers. I remember my first year teaching I had great ideas and ambitions but when push came to shove I did not have the time to implement all the ideas I wanted to do. Guess what? I fell right back into being teacher centered-lecture based-plug and chug instructing. I want to develop a good webquest to get my students involved in learning. There is only 68,000 dairy farmers in the US. Do I think that any of my students will actually go inot the dairy industry? NO, but they will be able to breakdown a pedigree if they do go into the industry. I only need that one little sliver of light to make it a worthwile lesson. I will probably learn more from them than they will from me. I can't wait.

The rubric used for evaluatin a webquest was a good idea as was all the examples. I just don't know how my webquest will fit in.